An important goal in playing sports in to win. Often that means proper play execution, good ball control, good grip and feel, and proper form in the sports fundamentals. Gloves and other types of hand covers are permitted in most sports. Many individuals use gloves to enhance, in some way, their competitive edge. Indeed, gloves have become so important that different types of gloves have been created for different sports. Even within a sport, different types of gloves have been invented to, among other things, maximize performance in specific tasks.
In FOOTBALL, for example, there are gloves that offensive and defensive Tackles can wear, that have thick padding around part of the hand. Offensive Receivers can purchase more expensive, all closed-finger, thin gloves to enhance their ability to catch and grip a football.
The use of gloves in football is so widespread that nearly every football player uses them, with the notable exception of football quarterbacks. You rarely see a quarterback wear gloves, even if just to keep warm. Most quarterbacks choose to play football without gloves, especially on their dominant (throwing) hand. This is largely because prior art consists of generic full-fingered gloves which are uncomfortable and burdensome on a quarterback's throwing hand, particularly on those fingers a quarterback places over the football laces. In addition, the full-fingered gloves prevent a quarterback to have any significant ‘feel’ of the football.
This ability to feel is critical when playing the position of quarterback. When the quarterback receives the ball from the teammate playing the Center position, the quarterback especially during a pass play, has to quickly find the laces on the football by feeling and not looking at the football. The quarterback has to look for an open player to pass to, and cannot therefore look down at the football to find the football laces.
This need to ‘feel’ a ball with a hand has therefore resulted in quarterbacks having to make a difficult choice. Although clearly these players would benefit from added grip enhancers on the throwing hand to increase their passing receptions or to decrease fumbles, for example, prior art gloves force a quarterback to choose between all feel and no feel. Virtually all quarterbacks have chosen to maintain feel and therefore sacrifice the ability to better grip the football. It is no surprise that quarterback fumbles remain a significant problem in football, even at the highest performance levels, and currently remains an insoluble problem in the sport for amateurs and professionals alike.
Playing the position of quarterback without the help of gloves, however, can also be an inferior choice. The website Instructables.com provides a good description of one popular conventional way to hold and throw a football.
“The instructable documents on how to correctly throw a football.
Step 1: Hand Placement.
a. Place hand on ball with index finger [forefinger] closest to the tip of the ball.
b. Place middle finger off the end of the white laces.
c. Place ring finger inbetween second and third laces from the back.
d. Place pinky finger between fourth and fifth laces from the back.
e. Wrap thumb around ball.”
(instructables.com/id/how-to-throw-football/)
Whereas the fingers over the laces have a solid grip on the ball—primarily due to the football laces on the ball—digital segments off the laces are virtually unsupported and therefore have a relatively weaker grip, creating a weak overall grip on the football when using this football grip preference (see FIG. 7 for an example of a conventional method of how a quarterback typically grips a football).
This weak overall grip becomes more pronounced when added stress is placed on a quarterback's thumb, forefinger, or middle finger. When a quarterback, intending to pass the football, suddenly has to scramble, for example, or if the quarterback ‘pumps’ the ball (goes through all the motions and speed of throwing the ball but doesn't actually release the ball), the grip strength of the thumb and forefinger can determine whether or not a quarterback fumbles the football. In fact, even a quarterback's middle finger would have minimal grip capabilities after pumping the football, because while the middle finger can push off the lace that it is bumping up against on its side adjacent to the ring finger, when the quarterback begins to pull back the football, the middle finger would not be able to bump up against any laces because the middle finger is not ‘in between’ the football laces.
Unfortunately, one need only view the statistics to see that fumbles persist as an insoluble problem, even at the professional level today. In the entire 2010 National Football League (NFL) season, there were only ten players who had 9 or more fumbles in the season. All ten players were quarterbacks (The Official NFL Record & Fact Book, 2011).
Under the ‘tips’ section of Wikihow.com, it further describes proper football throwing form: “A proper throw will feel like it's only utilizing the thumb, Index [forefinger], and middle finger. Good release will ‘roll’ off of your Index and middle finger, to impart more spin; you may snap your wrist through as you follow through to the hip. The other three fingers on your hand stabilize the ball as its being flung. They should not be used to impart spin on the ball. The most important finger to throwing a spiral is the Index finger; it is the finger that holds the most leverage in putting spin on the ball.” The conventional way of playing the position of quarterback therefore requires an ability to have solid grip and control with the forefinger, a finger that is not able to be placed over the football laces; the resulting glove-less grip creates a strong hold on the ball by ail the fingers except the thumb as well as the forefinger and at times the middle finger—the most important digital segments when throwing a football. On a wet football field, during extreme weather conditions (hot or cold), that weaker or looser grip makes for a much more difficult completed pass, less success at throwing a spiral, and inconsistency and inaccuracy in passing.
Passing the ball is a significant part of the sport of football, sometimes throwing as much as 103 times in a single game (e.g., Seattle vs. San Diego, 2002). Thus, developing a solution to enhance one's ability of better controlling a football and completing a pass reception would substantially impact the sport.
There have been some attempts through the years to solve the problems of inconsistencies and turnovers in the sport of football. For example, changes have been made to the actual football in order to make the ball easier to handle. Changes to the shape and size, as well as the addition of grip enhancing materials to the ball—such as the addition of PVC dots—have made it possible to make the ball more grippable. The ability of the quarterback to maintain control of the football was still problematic because of the lack of any grip enhancing device for the player to use; gloves that could be placed on the throwing hand such that a football quarterback could now more significantly control a ball with his arm, thereby creating an overall grip of the football throughout the football. As a result of this unmet need, inconsistencies and turnovers were still high in the sport.
The introduction and subsequent proliferation in the use of gloves found some success but even with these advancements, however, fumbles and incompletes still persist today, partly because none of the prior art gloves could be useful, and are therefore inoperable, to football quarterbacks.
Consequently, there is also a need for a sport glove of some kind which permits the quarterback to hold a football more securely. These problems may be addressed by providing a new sports glove that is configured to properly address the grip and feel requirements of the throwing hand of a quarterback, such as the present invention.
Quarterbacks are also now starting to intentionally run more (hereinafter called ‘rushing’) with the football creating an even greater need to configure a glove to meet the specific needs of a quarterback. New art is therefore required to meet this new need by offering a uniquely configured glove to meet the specialized needs of today's quarterbacks such as offering superior grip enhancing abilities, critical not only in ball control, but also in quarterback rushing successes.
Quarterback injuries can also become a significant problem in the sport. Protecting the quarterback from injury is so important that rules have been established to try and minimize those injuries. Gloves have proven useful in protecting other users playing other positions in football, but prior art gloves have not been configured for use by quarterbacks. To be sure, many quarterback injuries take place on the quarterback's throwing hand, primarily on the back portion of the hand, on the side of the hand or palm area, or on the fingers of the throwing hand.
Prior art configuration problems cease to protect a quarterback's throwing hand. As is well known, repeated exposure to hand injury can cause damage to the systems of the hand, such as the nervous system, the muscular system or the skeletal system. Therefore, there is not only an opportunity for new art, but there is an increasing concern and need to solve this configuration problem, not only for professionals but also for children and teenagers playing this football position.
Consequently, there is also a need for a protective sports glove of some kind which permits the quarterback to hold a football securely and still provide adequate protection of the throwing hand against impacts from opposing players.
Over the last decade or two, quarterbacks have clearly increasingly chosen to rush for yardage and act more like a running back at times. The top five NFC Conference quarterbacks, for example, rushed for a total of 1,562 yards in the 2010 season. It is also no surprise, therefore, that there were a total of 731 fumbles in the entire NFL that season, and fully over 25% of all those fumbles were attributed to quarterbacks (2010 NFL Season). As this trend continues, especially with more popular offensive formations such as ‘the wildcat’ and ‘spread’ formation, these grip-enhancing shortcomings will undoubtedly be more pronounced. Previous failures to create gloves to support a quarterback's throwing hand, not only while throwing the football but also while rushing with the football, is becoming a growing significant problem in need of a solution at the professional level and therefore certainly at the collegiate and amateur levels.
There is therefore a need for significant advances in the sport of football to assist quarterbacks, a position that touches and controls the football more than any other position in the sport. New art needs to be offered, such as the present invention, to meet the needs of quarterbacks by developing a glove that is configured to meet the unique needs of that position.
In the field of GOLF, to be sure, there exists much prior art in the form of gloves for a golfer's weak (non-dominant) hand. In fact, most active golf players wear a glove on their weak hand, and go without a glove for their strong hand (if one were to go to any major store to buy golf gloves, they would be sold and packaged in singles—one glove—not sold in pairs). Gloves are prevalent in golf largely because of the role that hand grip plays in a golfer's overall performance.
Although there are many types of full-fingered gloves for a golfer's weak-hand, they all attempt to maximize a golfer's weak-hand grip without regard to a golfer's weak hand feel, and hand coordination needs. It is no surprise, therefore, that prior art consists of full-fingered (all fingers are covered), closed palm gloves. As a result, a typical golfer must rely on his/her weak-hand to provide most of the grip support, and on his strong-hand to provide all of the ‘feel’ in his golf swing. There is, therefore, an opportunity to invent a device—and improve prior art—that could offer some ‘feel’ ability for the weak hand, without significantly diminishing that enhanced grip ability that gloves offer. This would increase overall hand control of a golfer's club swing, and therefore greater success in competition.
One very popular grip, for example, is called the interlocking grip method. When you use this grip method, the forefinger of the golfer's weak-hand is placed over and wrapped around the strong (dominant) hand's pinkie finger. With this grip, clearly the role of the interlocked fingers has to do with grip as well as with coordination and feel to more effectively control the golf swing and to provide greater overall golf swing consistency. There is, therefore, no real need to cover all of the weak-hand's forefinger, which touches the dominant hand's interlocked pinkie finger, and uncovering part of the forefinger would actually significantly increase overall coordination by allowing the uncovered portion of the weak hand's forefinger to touch the skin of the dominant hand's pinkie finger. Embodiments of the present invention would therefore offer significant improvement to prior art.
Whereas weak-hand support products seem to be crowded in the sport of golf, there is a long existing need for a device that could offer added support for a golfer's strong hand without significantly diminishing its ability to adequately feel the golf club. Inventing a solution to this problem could, among other things, allow for greater golf swing control and consistency, and create an entirely new market to support a golfer's strong-hand.
There is therefore an opportunity to invent a device that could offer some ‘feel’ ability for the dominant hand, while significantly enhancing the grip ability of that same hand. This would increase overall hand control of a golfer's club swing by allowing a golfer to have added grip capabilities on both hands, and therefore greater success in competition.
In Golf magazine's April 2005 article titled “Fix Your Grip,” golf instructor Charlie King provides an overview of how to grip a golf club. “Good golf starts with your grip. The proper hold on the club helps you do three crucial things: Hinge your wrists, control the clubface at impact and support the club throughout the swing. Here are three simple grip tips.” As King continues, his third tip is “both hands; solid at the top. An effective grip sets the face square at the top, with the shaft parallel to the target line. You should feel most of the club's weight in your left thumb and right forefinger. Now you're ready to turn it loose.” Although prior art seems to be crowded in offering a glove for the weak-hand to support and better control the club weight placed on the thumb of the weak hand, there remains an unmet need for added support on or around the forefinger of the strong (dominant) hand.
Additionally, constant swinging of a golf club at real swing speeds often results in soreness on and between the thumb and forefinger of a golfer's strong hand wearing no glove. This soreness can often also come from the rubbing or slipping between the club handle and the portion between the thumb and forefinger of the strong hand, suggesting a need to find a way to increase the grip of a golfer's strong hand, as well as protect this hand from soreness. This is especially important in the sport of golf because even the smallest of slipping—during the golf swing or upon impact of the golf ball—can create enormous inconsistencies and inaccuracies, critical issues in determining overall performance in golf.
A further reason why golfers are not using gloves on their dominant hand has to do with the fact that golf gloves are not uniquely configured to best conform to a golfer's preferred golf grip method. For example, golfers are not using gloves on their dominant hand because the dominant hand's pinkie finger is often used to touch and feel the non-dominant hand when holding the golf club using the traditional overlap grip; this is done to help with the coordination of movement of both hands to preferably act in unison throughout the golf swing. Therefore, at least a portion of the dominant hand's pinkie finger is preferably uncovered in order to maintain necessary feel. Because the dominant hand is responsible for most of the feeling in the golf swing, it also becomes necessary to maintain some level of high sensitivities on a portion of the dominant hand's ring finger and forefinger as well.
A preferred configuration for the golfer's strong hand would be, for example, a glove which could increase the grip capabilities of the dominant hand's thumb and a significant portion of the forefinger, while offering some level of feel along the ring finger and the pinkie finger. The dominant hand's forefinger would require a unique blend of grip and sensitivity capabilities. Providing added grip capabilities along the forefinger's fingertips would allow a use to better maintain control, while providing an aperture along the palmar portion of the forefinger would simultaneously allow the user to maintain tactile sensitivities whereby at least a portion of the forefinger's skin would still touch the handle of a golf club, for example. The glove's thumb stall would further provide a palmar portion which covers a user's entire thumb's palmar section, a critical feature in providing a solid grip along one end of the overlapping grip. This new type of sports glove would thus offer the ability of a wearer to simultaneously have significant grip and feel throughout the grip of a sports apparatus such as football or golf club.
Consequently, there are clear indications that an entirely new market exists for a device that could support a golfer's strong hand. In particular, there remains an unmet need that would provide multiple benefits, such as better overall grip and more coordination with both hands during the practice or play of golf, and in various other sports activities. The present invention solves the above mentioned problems by, among other things, providing a glove configured for use on the dominant hand that can increase grip abilities on areas primarily responsible for the gripping a golf club, while allowing portions of the other fingers to be uncovered and able to maintain necessary feeling capabilities.